Kobe Bryant legitimately has some of the most loyal fans in the history of sports, but equally he has a lot of haters as well.
He is one of the few players to hit that level where there is no middle ground. When you get old a lot of those haters soften a bit and realize the reasons they hated weren’t very good at all.
JR Smith is the type of person who will tell you how he feels and he is on social media now saying that people who hated on Kobe in the past but showing him love now are fake.
Kobe got a lot of support and benefit of the doubt during that time period of his rape case, but I can understand some of the other stuff.
There were a LOT of people who said he would never win again without Shaq but he was able to go to 3 more Finals winning 2.
Kobe is one of the most interesting players of our generation and the conversations (arguments) will live on well after he hangs up his sneakers.